Certificates at Akron Law

Health Law Certificate Program

The remarkable growth and transformation of the healthcare industry translates into a growing number of jobs for lawyers.

At the same time, meeting the challenge of educating today's practice-ready health lawyers is a new and unique enterprise. Navigating complex health law issues increasingly requires a sophisticated understanding of the confluence of science, technology and social science, something not usually taught in a more traditional, finite health law program.

Recognizing these new dynamics, UA's Health Law Certificate Program takes a 'boots on the ground' approach, providing skills training and externships to meet the one to two year experience prerequisite to employment. This skills training and externship experience will allow graduates to hit the ground running in their first years of practice in multiple areas, such as regulatory compliance and risk management, while encouraging continuous reflection on the relationship between law, science and technology.

To complete the certificate, students must complete a core set of four health law courses and a semester-long externship.

Students have an opportunity at Akron Law that few law schools offer of completing both the Health Law Certificate and a Litigation Certificate—or both a Health Law Certificate and a Certificate in IP. There is a significant amount of overlap among these three fields, and combining certificate programs allows our graduates to enter the legal profession with a highly relevant and marketable skill set.

Certificate in Intellectual Property Law

The certificate program is open to all students. To enter the program a student must take the Introduction to Intellectual Property course at the first available time in the student's schedule (usually fall semester of 2nd Year for Full-Time/3rd Year for Part-Time). Student may be admitted provisionally to a certificate program pending meeting this prerequisite. The student must also seek and obtain approval from a member of the intellectual property law faculty to participate in the certificate program.

A student must submit the certificate application and the IP Certificate Course Selection, Tracking and Approval List with Item #1 signed and submitted to the Associate Dean on or before February 1st of the second year for Full-time students and third year for Part-time students. All students approved to participate in the program will be assigned a faculty advisor from the intellectual property law faculty.

The student shall work closely with his or her advisor to tailor a program of study suitable to meet his or her goals. The certificate will be a Certificate in Intellectual Property Law. A student, with approval of his or her IP faculty advisor, may customize a course of study and obtain a certificate that designates a subspecialty in IP law (e.g., patents and technology, internet, technology management, entertainment, IP litigation, etc). To earn the certificate, each student must:

Complete the Introduction to Intellectual Property course.

Complete at least one of the three core IP courses: Patent Law and Policy, Copyright Law, Trademark Law.

Complete a minimum of nine (9) additional credit hours in courses designated as part of the intellectual property law curriculum* or approved by the student’s IP faculty advisor.

Complete a supervised writing under the direction of a member of the intellectual property law faculty that is a significant, in-depth project. This writing may also meet the requirements for the GWR.

Achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 in the courses taken to earn the certificate.

* In addition to the courses on the IP list, participation on an IP Advocacy Team would also count as part of the IP curriculum. Students who earn the certificate in Intellectual Property Law will be eligible to credit 12 credits toward earning the LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law. (Current plans are to permit students to earn up to 9 hours of credit toward the LL.M. This would give our certificate students an additional boost in earning their LL.M. here.)

Certificate in Litigation

The certificate program is open to all students. A student wishing to earn the certificate must seek and obtain approval from a member of the litigation faculty to participate in the certificate program. (These members of the faculty will be drawn from faculty teaching in the core areas of litigation who indicate their willingness to serve in this capacity.) Students are advised to seek approval as early as possible in their law school career, but no later than two semesters before they intend to graduate. All students approved to participate in the program will be assigned a faculty advisor from the litigation faculty. The student shall work closely with his or her advisor to tailor a program of study suitable to meet his or her goals. To earn the certificate, the student must: